The best way to translate films from one language to another has long been subject of heated debate.

Most people fall firmly in one of two camps: team subtitling or team dubbing. With the prominence of Hollywood and the British film industry on the world’s cinematic stage, it takes much more for a foreign-language film to hit the mainstream in English-speaking countries than the other way around. Arguably, speakers of other languages have an advantage over (monolingual) English speakers in least one sense: having exposure to films in their native language as well as the blockbusters gives them greater choice and more chances of finding films they really enjoy.

English-speaking cinema-goers tend to be less accepting. When the Korean-language Parasite (Korean: 기생충 ‘Gisaengchung’) made history this year by being the first foreign-language film to win an Oscar (taking home the coveted ‘Best Picture’ as one of four wins as well as two nominations), it reignited the ‘sub or dub’ debate. Many English speakers passed up the opportunity to watch the film despite its string of accolades, citing reluctance to watch a film with subtitles.

Dubbing / Voice overs

Recording new audio to add to a motion picture that has already been shot in another language.

Advantages:

• Being able to watch a film in your native language can be more relaxing and enjoyable.

• You are better able to focus on the visual elements of the film, which are an important part of the experience.

Disadvantages:

• Dubbing is an extremely expensive process.

• Changing a character’s voice will change the way they are perceived. For a fun exercise, we recommend watching a clip of the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants dubbed in the Irish language.

• Not all languages take the same number of words to say the same thing. This can lead to awkward gaps and pauses, or changes to the pace of speech or the amount being said in order to make the audio match the visual.

• No matter how well a film is dubbed, the new audio will never perfectly match the original actor’s lip movements, leading to a strange viewing experience.

Subtitling

Adding a translation of the script at the bottom of the screen in real time as the actors speak.

Advantages:

• Subtitling is a cheaper process in comparison with dubbing, which makes it more affordable to share films with speakers of other languages.

• It allows you to experience the original actor’s performance; it’s possible to understand the emotions conveyed even without knowing the words themselves.

• Watching films in a language you are learning with subtitles in your native language can help brush up your language skills.

Disadvantages:

• Trying to follow the on-screen action and subtitles at the same time can be difficult, leading to you missing some visual elements or some of the dialogue.

• Subtitling may not be suitable for audiences with lower literacy levels i.e. children’s films.

We prefer subtitling for a plethora of reasons. To us, leaving the original film ‘intact’ and simply adding lines of text rather than replacing feels more respectful to the film crews that work tirelessly to make every element of their work come together in harmony. Of course, we are also firm believers that exposure to foreign languages enriches your life in a number of ways.

You’ll notice that we haven’t listed the likelihood of poor translation under either subtitling or dubbing, although it is a possibility with both if not undertaken by linguists with a full understanding of the specific requirements of film translation. Film scripts are creative masterpieces with intricate layers of meaning; every word is carefully chosen to enrich the viewing experience and work in tandem with visual elements as well as other audio such as the soundtrack.

Here at Talking Heads, we tackle subtitles with a transcreation approach. When we create subtitles, our thorough approach ensures that every film has the same impact on viewers in any world language as in the source language. We also cover the technical elements such as applying the subtitles to your film (either permanently embedded or provided as a separate SRT subtitle file) with accurate time codes and speaker identification for a seamless viewing experience. The finished product will undergo a final review by a native speaker of the target language, before being sent back to you ready for your new audience.

Get in touch to talk about our subtitling services today.